In the process of shipping one or more articles in a container from one location to another, a dunnage material typically is placed in the container to fill any voids around the articles and thus prevent or minimize any shifting movement of the articles within the container during shipment. Some commonly used dunnage materials are plastic foam peanuts, plastic bubble pack, air bags, and converted paper dunnage material.
One way to determine how much dunnage is needed in a container is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,429. The '429 patent discloses a packaging system comprising (i) a probe for sensing the void in a container, (ii) a dunnage converter, and (iii) a controller for controlling the converter's feeding and cutting of a strip of dunnage material to produce a sufficient quantity of dunnage to fill the void in the container based on the information provided by the probe. The probe can be a mechanical probe used to probe a container in one or more locations to determine the amount of dunnage material needed to fill the void. The probe can be used in conjunction with or supplanted by a bar code reader or other sensors, including optical and ultrasonic sensors, that sense the dimensions or degree of fill of the container.
Common types of containers include a shoebox-style container and a regular slotted container (RSC). A shoebox-style container has an opening on one side and a separate lid for closing the opening. An RSC has flaps extending from the sides of the container that can be folded down over the top and then secured in place. Typically articles are placed in an RSC container with the flaps in an upright configuration, and the flaps generally remain in that configuration until the container is ready to be closed for shipping.